


the stories he told

by watergator



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Gen, Memories, Missing Persons, Promises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 23:56:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7662154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watergator/pseuds/watergator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>some Pidge and Shiro fluff (NOT SHIPPING)</p>
            </blockquote>





	the stories he told

Shiro hadn't half expected to not see a dim light from the room across the hall, the door opened only a jar, the light pouring out, brightening the small pocket of space that was part of the ship.

Shiro felt his legs move from where he was sat in his bed - it wasn't like he was sleeping anyway, too many nightmares, too many hours of wondering and worrying.

He moved towards the door which was wide open, thanks to his time in the Galra prisons, the fear of being locked in was one of the many on his list of things that scared him to no end.  
Having his door wide open every night was an essential.

The paladin slipped out of the room and into the corridor, inches away from the other door.

He hesitated, his metallic arm hovering over the doorknob for a solid few seconds before swinging the door open and walking into the room, the light blinding him momentarily, before he blinked twice, then a third time for good measure to let his eyes adjust.

"Shiro!" The small figure that was huddled in the corner of the bed, bundled in blankets, the light from the laptop that was balanced on a pillow reflecting in the lenses of the glasses,

Shiro sighed, "Pidge –"  
But before he could go on one about how important sleep was, and how the bags under her eyes were becoming a prominent feature on her face, she interrupted him, pushing herself onto her knees, the laptop wobbling slightly,

"I'm almost finished coding this Galra tech, maybe if I can translate what it means..." her eyes trailed back to the screen, her brows furrowed in concentration as she was sucked back into the vortex, forgetting her current conversation she was having not less than two seconds ago. She had completely zoned out.

_"Shiro?" The boy said quietly, for what must have been the hundredth time, making the older boy snap his head round, looking at the other end of the cell, where the teen boy sat huddled in his rags, concern swimming in his chocolate brown eyes,_

_"Sorry Matt, must have zoned out there" Shiro forced out a small chuckle, he seemed to be zoning out more often these days, he was starting to worry if he was losing his mind,_

_"My sister used to do that – zone out" Matt smiled slightly, and Shiro shifted slightly where he sat, the chains on his wrists and ankles that held him on his side of the room dug into his skin, but he made himself comfortable,_

_"She used to talk a million miles a minute, and then when something mildly more interesting caught her eye, it was like you weren't even standing there" the brown haired boy laughed slightly at the memory,_

_And Shiro couldn't help but laugh too, the stories of his family, of his baby sister, the stories that kept Matt sane, and maybe Shiro too._

"So just five more minutes, please"

Shiro blinked back into reality, looking down at Pidge who was blinking with big puppy dog eyes, smile wide ear to ear,

"Five minutes" Shiro gave in, "and anything over that, and you can say goodbye to your little friend" Shiro smirked, watching Pidges face blush slightly at the silly nickname she definitely didn't give her laptop.

Shiro slipped back into his own room, feeling a little less anxious.

The morning rolled over and Shiro was greeted at the dining table, as Hunk and Lance chatted over a plate of goo, then Keith stumbled in, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with a knuckle.  
And then finally, when breakfast was near enough over, the smallest paladin wandered in, more asleep than awake.

"What happened to five more minutes" Shiro said softly as she hopped up into a chair, digging into the food goo before her.

"Don't take my baby away" Pidge said dramatically, earning a harsh laugh from the paladin,

There was a small window of silence before Shiro swallowed his food,

"So what were you doing?"

Pidge's face fell slightly, and Shiro winced,

"Doesn't matter now"

Pidge didn't eat much after that, just pushing the food across the plate with her fork, eyes down and face pulled down into a small frown.

_"You gotta eat, Shiro" Matt pleaded, and the said teen turned his face away from the plate of god-knows-what was on there._

_"It's not that bad" Matt spoke again,_

_"I'm not touching that stuff" Shiro growled, and he saw Matt flinch from where he sat._

_"Please" his voice was barely above a whisper, and there was so much desperation there,_

_"What's the point?" Shiro spat, anger rising up,_

_"Because whatever these—these things are, they're just feeding us up to kill us!" There was so much underlying fear in his voice that it was wavering,_

_"Starving yourself isn't any better" Matt's voice was soft and warm and welcoming, reminding him that there was a humbleness in his friend that was what grounded Shiro from this new hellish nightmare,_

The sound of fork scraping on plate was what brought Shiro back to present time,

"Don't tell me you're not gonna eat that?" Shiro raised an eyebrow, getting the younger Paladins attention, her head was now rested on the palm of her hand, her elbow on the table,

"Not hungry" she said quietly, and Shiro could see painfully how hard she was trying to hide her sadness.

"Not eating isn't going to help anything" the older paladin said, leaning closer to his friend.

"But—" she started,

"Not buts, unless you really do want me to take your beloved baby away"

Pidge rolled her eyes, shovelling a forkful of goo in her mouth, watching the smile form on his face.

Shiro awoke in a cold sweat, his chest heaving up and down, eyes wide with split second fear, before realising that he was safe in his small room.

His breathed slowed down, his chest moving more rhythmically, the sound of blood pounding in his head had soothed, and he could breath.  
He looked out for Pidge's light across the hall, but the room was dark, the door was open, and Shiro could make out the outline of the bed against the wall, and how the Pidge sized ball wasn't huddled up there.

His heart skipped a beat, sudden panic and fear taking over, his brain whizzing over thousands of scenarios before he came to his senses, knowing where Pidge was.

He headed off to the constellation room,  
he was right about where to find her.

She was sat, her back to him, her face turned upwards as she looked up at the stars that were dotted around the pocket of universe that was shown, small white lines connecting them, creating shapes and images, all labelled with the correct names.

Shiro heard a sniff then a small sob, and only had to shuffle the slightest, to startle her, spinning around at the waist where she sat - and even though it was somewhat dark, he could see that her eyes were raw and puffy, red from crying, and her hair was strew over the place, and indication that maybe he wasn't the only one having problems sleeping.

"Sorry" he murmured, feeling lightly embarrassed, maybe he shouldn't have intruded, it seemed personal and—no, anything personal of Pidge, was personal to him.

"It's okay" Pidge tried to smile, but ended up hiccuping and wiping her nose with the back of her sleeve, her eyes were hinting a small warmth, and Shiro moved, closing the space between them with long strides, sitting down on the step next to her,

"You think you could name them all off by heart?" Shiro asked lightheartedly, and Pidge smiled, chuckling,

"Constellations are kinda my thing"  
There was a tint of playfulness in her tone,

"Okay" he said slowly, still looking up at the stars, "what about all the planets in the solar system?" He raised an eyebrow, and Pidge mirrored his look,

"You simply underestimate me"

Shiro laughed,  
"Go on then"

The girl laughed more, adjusting he glasses, eyes flickering between the stars and the floor,

She cleared her throat,  
"Well" she started, "there's Earth, obviously" she glanced at Shiro who nodded,

"But before that there's, Mercury and Venus" she paused, "then Earth"

She sniffled again,  
"Then there's Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and then- the one that Lance always giggles at- Uranus,"

Both Shiro and Pidge rolled their eyes before cracking a smile,

"And then after that there's Neptune and —" she stopped abruptly, then adjusted her glasses,

"Then Pluto"

Shiro nodded,  
"Very good, I'm impressed"

Pidge felt her face blush slightly as she smiled at her friend,

"What's your favourite planet?" Shiro questioned,

The green paladin chewed her bottom lip,   
"That's a tough one"

Shiro gave a small laugh,  
"Not for me, Earth will always be top in my books"

The atmosphere suddenly changed, as Pidge looked away, feeling rather saddened, the idea that Shiro hadn't even been home yet, hadn't had a chance to breath yet, to actually live after everything that's happened to him.

"I like Pluto"

Shiro smiled,  
"I had an idea you would"

Pidge found herself shuffling towards him,  
"And why is that?"

"It's just that Pluto is the smallest one and, well, I don't know, it's just kinda nice isn't it?"

Pidge threw her head back and laughed, causing Shiro to laugh again,

"Kinda nice?" She giggled,

"Well yeah it's like, the cute one, the baby of all the planets" Shiro blushed,

"I like to think that Pluto is this small planet, people keep changing their minds about, and not really taking for granted for, it's small but ferocious" Pidge exclaimed, puffing her chest out,

"Sounds like someone I know" He earned himself an elbow in the ribs for that,

"Kerberos is one of Plutos moons"  
Pidge suddenly said, and it felt like nails on a chalkboard to Shiro, just hearing that name made him inwardly cringe,

"Maybe that's why it's my favourite" her voice was quiet, and the sparkle in her eyes from moments ago seemed to have dulled,

"Because when Dad and Matt said that they were gonna be gone for a while," her breath hitched and Shiro froze, "I guess I spent my time researching and making myself busy with studies and stuff like that"

There was a prolonged silence and Shiro was still frozen, words caught in his throat like a fish on a hook, struggling and running out of time,

Her brown eyes were watering, the light reflecting off of them, like mirrors, images bouncing off of them, "You think I'll ever see them again Shiro?"

" _Matt, I –" Shiro said softly, watching his friend curl up into a ball on his side of his cell, going incredibly small, almost like he was trying to disappear,_

_"Well?" he said with a shaky voice, "do you think I will ever see them again? My family? My friends? My home?" His voice cracked, and his emotions buckled under him as his eyes streamed with tears, his cheeks red raw from the previous waterfall, his chest heaving with every compressed sob — and all Shiro could do was watch, unable to hold his best friend in his arms and rock him to sleep, the chains held him back from cradling him, from whispering sweet soothing words of comfort in his ear, all Shiro could do was promise, say words and promise, and it took guts for him to make such promises when he didn't even believe them himself, yet here he was, feeding them to a broken boy like some drug to keep him contained._

But this wasn't Matt, he wasn't chained up, helpless and frightened, he wasn't scared, he wasn't alone, he wasn't trapped and he wasn't going to let anyone get hurt because of him.

He wrapped Pidge up in his arms, his torso swallowing her up, as she sobbed into his chest, his chin resting upon her head, soothing her and he whispered,

"I promise you Katie, we'll find them"

It wasn't going to be the same. He wasn't going to fail, not this time.


End file.
